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St Petersburg IndyCar: Will Power and Penske top practice again

Will Power continued to set the pace in the early phase of this weekend's IndyCar season-opener in St Petersburg after leading another Team Penske 1-2-3 in Saturday's third practice session

The defending series champion's fastest lap of 1m01.3621s came mid-way through the session, and never really appeared under threat.

New team-mate Simon Pagenaud came closest to matching the Australian with a time 0.1 seconds slower, leaving Helio Castroneves to round out the top three.

ANALYSIS: Is IndyCar out of the wildnerness?

It would have been a Penske 1-2-3-4 had Takuma Sato not managed to squeak ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.03s, making the 2014 St Pete polesitter the highest-placed Honda driver.

Sato's AJ Foyt Racing team expanded to two cars over the winter with the addition of a second entry for Jack Hawksworth, and the Japanese driver said that the additional input was already proving to be a benefit.

"We are positive and happier than yesterday," he said.

"To have two cars is helping massively, and even in one race we've seen a difference."

Sato's 1m01.8686s pole time from 12 months ago was bettered by eight drivers during this session, with times set to fall further still in qualifying later on Saturday when the teams are granted access to the softer-compound red tyres for the first time.

Elsewhere in the field, Graham Rahal was one of the few to benefit from the final couple of minutes afforded to him by a late restart to jump up to eighth, just behind Ryan Hunter-Reay and Scott Dixon.

That restart followed a red flag triggered by Tony Kanaan's trip into the run-off, while Sebastien Bourdais was responsible for an earlier stoppage when he had to be retrieved from the escape road at Turn 4.

Follow the 2015 IndyCar season-opener as it happens with AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live from 8pm UK time on Sunday March 29

PRACTICE TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m01.3621s -
2 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m01.4835s 0.1214s
3 Helio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m01.5092s 0.1471s
4 Takuma Sato AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Honda 1m01.5119s 0.1498s
5 Juan Pablo Montoya Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m01.5445s 0.1824s
6 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m01.6369s 0.2748s
7 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m01.7985s 0.4364s
8 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 1m01.8573s 0.4952s
9 Sebastien Bourdais KVSH Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m01.8944s 0.5323s
10 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m01.9838s 0.6217s
11 Carlos Munoz Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m02.0287s 0.6666s
12 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m02.0418s 0.6797s
13 Sage Karam Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m02.1076s 0.7455s
14 Stefano Coletti KV Racing Technology Dallara/Chevrolet 1m02.1298s 0.7677s
15 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m02.1322s 0.7701s
16 Luca Filippi CFH Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m02.1444s 0.7823s
17 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 1m02.1504s 0.7883s
18 Josef Newgarden CFH Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m02.1595s 0.7974s
19 James Jakes Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 1m02.2848s 0.9227s
20 Jack Hawksworth AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Honda 1m02.3017s 0.9396s
21 Carlos Huertas Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 1m02.3911s 1.0290s
22 Simona de Silvestro Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m02.4095s 1.0474s
23 Gabby Chaves Bryan Herta Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m02.6224s 1.2603s
24 Francesco Dracone Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 1m04.8715s 3.5094s


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